“It is important
to understand that to be young or old, a woman or a person with a disability or
HIV does not, of itself, make a person vulnerable or at increased risk. Rather,
it is the interplay of factors that does so...” (The Sphere Project- Humanitarian
Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response)
I find I am often in conversations about how to serve
people after a disaster and I hear planners talk about vulnerable populations;
I wonder through what lens they are looking through?
In most cases it is often new immigrants, people with
obvious disabilities and the poor. While
those are the usual suspects as the movie line goes, I believe it is important
realize being from one of those categories is not what makes you vulnerable, it
is the addition (or subtraction) of something.
Our daily lives are fairly comfortable by most means in the
first world, but when something happens like Sandy, it quickly can become a 3rd
world working area. And with the
subtraction of electricity, and easy access to the grocer, doctor and other
support systems we depend on, someone can quickly become vulnerable.
As you look at your community whether you are a Emergency
Manager, a CERT leader, an MRC member or any neighborhood program, look deeper
than the pre identified "Vulnerable Pop" look at the family with a
single parent, look at the older couple down the street who walk their dog, and
seem to get along pretty well for their age, look at the new comer who just
moved here and doesn't have connections to the community yet. Look at the UN
definition above and as you view your population through that lens ask
yourself " If that person (family) lost one of the following - power for a
week, or access to the grocery store, drug store, or clean water or anything we
take for granted would they become vulnerable?" If the answer is yes, you have some more
planning and teaching to do.
Disaster_dave
